The European Jewish Association has called for increased protection of Jewish institutions across Europe in the wake of the shooting in Copenhagen that left two people dead, one of them Jewish.

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the association’s general director, said EU leaders had not done enough to combat antisemitic attacks and prejudices in the lead-up to the attacks on Saturday – one on a free speech debate and one on a synagogue – and pointed to a need to “secure all Jewish institutions 24/7”.

As the Danish prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, condemned what she called “a cynical act of terror”, senior rabbis and Jewish politicians from around Europe expressed their solidarity with the Danish people and gave voice to rising fear and paranoia amid their own communities.

“The Jewish community in the city is really tense,” Copenhagen’s Chabad House rabbi Yitzhak Leventhal told Israel’s Channel 2 news. “This is an attack on the right of Jews to exist here.”

Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister, echoed the sentiment, stating that Israel and the Jewish people were on the frontlines of the war being waged by terrorists against the west and the entire free world. He said: “The international community must not satisfy itself with declarations and rallies against this terror, but must break out of the boundaries of what is politically correct and wage all-out war to root out Islamic terror.”

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, responded to the attacks with a controversial call for European Jews to emigrate to Israel. He said: “This wave of attacks will continue. Of course, Jews deserve protection in every country but we say to Jews, to our brothers and sisters: Israel is your home.

“We are preparing and calling for the absorption of mass immigration from Europe. I would like to tell all European Jews and all Jews wherever they are: Israel is the home of every Jew.”

Netanyahu made similar calls following the Paris terror attacks last month. Since then, the Jewish Agency has recorded interest by over 10,000 French citizens in emigrating to Israel, Ynet reported.

Rabbi Jair Melchior, a senior member of Copenhagen’s Jewish community, and son of Rabbi Michael Melchior, a left-leaning religious leader, said that he was “disappointed” by Netanyahu’s call for emigration, and insisted that he and his colleagues in Copenhagen were reluctant to “let terror win”.

“Terror is not a reason to move to Israel,” he said. “Hopefully the security should do what they do, but our lives have to continue naturally. Terror’s goal is to change our lives and we won’t let it.” Melchior said the first step for the Danish Jewish community was to “gather and be there for each other”.

“We will go to the family and be there with them,” he said. “It’s not an easy time. We lost a dear member of the community and now we have to continue doing what he did, which was helping continue the regular Jewish lives in Denmark. This is the real answer to the vicious, cruel and cowardly act of terror.”

The deceased, 37-year-old Dan Uzan, was shot as he was guarding a batmitzvah that was taking place at a synagogue in central Copenhagen around 1am on Sunday morning. “He was a great guy,” Melchior said. “He was always there to help and do anything. He grew up in the community: in the Jewish school and then every Jewish institute. He really gave his heart and his time, and now also his life, for the community.

“This attack is part of the same thing we see now in Europe and many other places, whether it’s with IS [Islamic State] or al-Qaida – things the Muslim community also has a very difficult time dealing with. And we try and also work with them to stop and prevent and I hope we have their full cooperation, and I know we will because we’ve had it before.”

Rabbi Barry Marcus MBE, of the Central Synagogue in London’s Great Portland Street, said that the attacks on Saturday were not surprising, and that the Jewish community in Europe has been fearful and uncomfortable for some time. “We have known for a long while from colleagues in mainland Europe that there’s been an absence of will to deal with rising antisemitism. The events in Copenhagen were not a kind of aberration, there’s a pattern,” he said.

He said Netanyahu’s response to the shooting needed to be understood against the backdrop of a Europe that “did nothing to protect its own citizens” against the Nazis.

“Netanyahu’s comments refer to the resurgence of antisemitism, hatred and intolerance that is being allowed to flourish unchecked in many parts of Europe and threatens not only the relatively small Jewish communities that survived the Holocaust but also the Judeo-Christian values and democratic traditions of Europe. They refer to his lack of confidence in European leaders to confront and combat the present purveyors of this age old evil.”

He added: “If Jews were forced by circumstance to leave, it would indeed be a sad day for all of humanity – who next would feel the need to flee? The English in Scotland? Poles in England? Christians in Nigeria?”

Marcus has worked as a rabbi in Johannesburg and in Israel and was awarded an MBE in the 2015 New Year honours for services to Holocaust education. “Just 70 years after the Holocaust, antisemitism has again reared its ugly head. As we always say, they may begin with us, but this kind of hatred and intolerance will be aimed at Christians and other minorities, as we are now seeing in the Middle East.

“A few years ago we had news from our colleagues in Copenhagen that parents had been told to remove their children from nursery schools because they can no longer guarantee their safety. What happened last night is shocking, but we are not surprised. There’s been a slow-drip irrigation pipe of antisemitism being allowed to flourish.”

Marcus linked rising antisemitism to an increase in Islamic extremism. He said: “In France, after the attack on Charlie Hebdo, the guy that went into the supermarket made it quite clear that he wanted to kill Jews. That is being brushed aside because no one wants to actually deal with the reality.”

On the security at his synagogue, he said: “The saddest comment is that we have to have security in the 21st century outside houses of worship in England and across the continent.”

Melchior quoted the words of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement, who maintained that a life full of fear was a life not worth living. “The world is a narrow bridge and the main thing is not to fear at all,” he said.

Simon Johnson, chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council in Britain, said that the Jewish community in the UK was deeply shocked and saddened by what has happened and wanted to send its condolences to the families of those who were killed. “The other feeling is an immediate gratitude to the many volunteers in our community who provide security protection at our institutions and buildings,” he said.

He said that although there had been an increase in reports of antisemitism in the UK, “the interesting point for this country is that we had been liaising very closely with the government and with the police well before this incident. They responded by raising the threat level for Jewish communal institutions a number of weeks ago. They have been extremely cooperative and listened to our concerns.”

He added: “I continue to believe that Great Britain is a great place to be Jewish.”

Meanwhile, in a statement titled After the attacks in Copenhagen: #IGoToSynagogue, the European Union of Jewish Students said the world must protect the right of Jews to practise their religion in peace. “We woke up to tragedy today – our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families,” the statement said.

“The World Union of Jewish Students and EUJS jointly call on everyone to show solidarity with the Jewish community by using the hashtag #IgoToSynagogue to express that the right of Jews to gather and live their Judaism in safety and peace is everyone’s concern, to take a firm position in the face of antisemitism, and to also share why living Judaism in community matters to them.

“We also call on everyone to gather at Danish embassies around the world, to express their solidarity with the Danish people who suffered terror attacks yesterday, to light a candle in memory of yesterday’s victims and to stand tall and strong against terror.